Judges will post their top three picks in this thread, and a brief description of why they made that particular choice. Please no posts except for the judges at least until all three judges have posted.

official judges:

-jeco
-rayvon87
-Alucard1515 (mod judge)

the results of the popular vote will count as a fourth judge.

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the calculation:
--to decrease the number of ties, I decided to go with 1st place = 5 points, 2nd place = 3 points, 3rd place = 1 points. Breakdown is as follows:

Okay, so I've narrowed down my three choices. As I'm sure you all know, there were a lot of great entries, so it was tough deciding who made the cut. I started by choosing as I would in any other contest, based on which seemed to be the strongest and/or biggest improvements to the original sketches. Then I started weeding out ones that I felt didn't utilize the original sketches as much as they should have. So, there were some really great images that I felt I had to pass on in favor of those that were more on theme.

#2 Falmith pimps astraphohttp://filer.case.edu/gxl58/aftermath6.jpghttp://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/DSCN2535.jpg
Another strong image that stays faithful to the source sketch. I love the loose, painterly approach to the rending, and the colors are very nice. I like that it's at a bit of a high angle, and not just a straight on or side shot. I think maybe a few things could be tightened up (without loosing the painterlyness) or tweaked a bit, but overall it's a very good image.

It was my intent to contribute a sense of objectivity and not just choose the ones I liked or thought looked good, since skill is only 1/3 of the criteria. As such I essentially scored everybody in each area independent of the other criteria, totaled, and then reevaluated the results making sure they were a true holistic representation of what I felt each piece deserved.

I implemented the criteria as follows-

Theme- did it portray the concept, design, and idea of the original?

People who scored particularly high here were people who not only did a good job of representing the original sketch but also implemented new and original designs, concepts, and ideas that augmented and reinforced the ideas of the original. Using multiple sketches didn't hurt either.

Skill- how well did they demonstrate an understanding of the principals and elements of design and how well did they show the ability to aesthetically render while utilizing them?

Creativity- how much style and originality did the artist put into their work? Did their style and creativity work with or against the design?

Falmith’s piece represents the original sketch fairly well. The griffin has been simplified a bit by removing certain apparel; however more intricate and interesting design elements are given to the rider. Also by showing a blood soaked battle field a further degree of character is introduced to the pair reinforcing the original design.

What could have potentially been a bland and boring background is rendered with bold vibrant colors making it so much more interesting than it otherwise might have been. The loose bold strokes give the piece power, character, and mood. The perspective adds that extra bit of interest completing the scene.

Although it doesn't have the detail and complexity of some of the other more polished or scenic/background heavy entries the piece oozes style and that is essentially what helps it stand strong.

There is great attention to detail in this piece which holds very true to the original literally down to the nuts and bolts in some areas and yet also takes the original design to a whole new level by adding a degree of technical complexity that you would expect such a thing to have and making it seem much more functional and believable.

On top of this he also implements another character into his piece from a second sketch. This character also holds true to its original source but is modified with the new artist’s style and technique.

Overall the composition is rather bland however the theme is the pimping of the source material which was done quite well. Also despite the simplicity of the background the design of the wall does give the feeling that that mech belongs there. Also the minimalistic use of a few warm tones against an image dominated by cooler ones helps give a bit of interest to the colors.

Darkreaver’s source sketch was little more than a fairly average looking girl and a guy with an electric violin and yet he took what he had and made it into a dynamic and powerful scene that plays on the concepts that he did have to work with. As such he took some creative liberties to add a sense of style and creativity and it works fairly well.

Showing a great knowledge of technical skill and the ability to use it the piece demonstrates a particularly great use of perspective, composition, value, and color. All these things come together to make for a powerful and interesting scene.

The criteria for this contest was theme, skill, and creativity; he may not necessarily have scored the best in all areas but overall his piece excels in all of them.

A few honorable mentions-

Spoiler:

Phusion
This was my 4th place. Not much point in going into detail, just read Alucard’s post.

Jigokuen
Despite being well rendered and scoring among the highest in the skill department the piece deviated from the source image too much. The initial sketch was a character design. Choosing to have the character nude and putting her in a lush beautiful environment made for a great scene however the only thing that really links the image to the original sketch is the sword lying off to the side.

Muzz
Kind of the same thing as jigokuen. The scene itself is very interesting and well done however the original design had a very high-tech or futuristic element to it which was somewhat lost. Had the background had more of that element to it it would have reinforced the feel of the original sketch and scored much higher with me.

Miss Wiggle
This one was great for a lot of the same reasons that Falmith’s was. It had bold powerful colors and style, however the scene was just a bit too bland.

Dfacto
This one scored high in the skill department however I was disappointed that we see very little of the creature. While I can appreciate the idea of not showing the monster can add a lot of mood we already know what it looks like from the original sketch and that original design was great.

Lonely Operator
Among all the entries this one scored the highest with me in terms of theme. The original was basically an armored marine type of character that had a sort of malevolent persona to him, perhaps something along the lines of the Helghast. In the pimped version everything I felt about the original was exemplified.

The row of soldiers standing at attention saluting their commander shows they are obviously some sort of military, the color scheme gives a maniacal impression, and the assembling ships in the sky leaves open the impression that they are warmongers.

If the composition were reworked into more of a landscape orientation the scene would have a very cinematic feel to it.

I could go into how and why I've chosen the ones I've chosen, but all I'll say is that I've chosen the ones that I like best, the ones that I think have taken the subject matter and taken it into above and beyond territory or that I think just look great. They weren't easy decisions to make, there were some truly brilliant entries, both in concept and in execution.

In third place:Phusion pimping Sxey
I love the simplicity of this one. I'm with Al, I'd totally buy a shirt of this. *hint hint*

In second place:Jigo pimping OhHenry
Again, it's simple but with a wonderfully lush environment. Beautifully painted, particularly like the hair. The mood in this piece is what sells it for me.

And in first place... *drumroll*Darkreaver pimping Legend 1+2
Initially, I was confused by this piece. There were body parts everywhere! But I then got over that, looked closer and understood what was going on... and thought it was a damn brilliant concept, terrifically illustrated. The movement is fast but graceful and colouring is the cherry on top.

There were some amazing entries, and I'd like to congratulated each and every one of you who entered.
You've done what I (and many others) couldn't and actually participated instead of procrastinating and sitting on your ass doing nothing, so kudos to all of you.